Titaniferous iron concentrate is the main mineral raw material for extracting titanium. The existing titanium sponge preparation method takes the titaniferous iron concentrate as an initial material, obtains a rich-titanium material through a reducing smelting process, a chlorinated melting process, a pre-reduction hydrochloric acid leaching process or a pre-reduction sulphuric acid leaching process, takes titanium tetrachloride which is formed by reacting the rich-titanium material with coke and chlorine gas at a high temperature of about 1000 DEG C. as an intermediate material, and then prepares the titanium sponge through a magnesium thermic reduction process (Kroll process) or a sodium thermic reduction process (Hunter process), wherein the reducing smelting process needs a high temperature of between 1700 and 1800 DEG C. and obtains the rich-titanium material after using coke to perform reduction; the chlorinated melting process needs a high temperature of about 1000 DEG C. and obtains the rich-titanium material after using coke and chlorine gas to perform reaction; the pre-reduction hydrochloric acid leaching process needs to be carried out at a high temperature of about 1200 DEG C., and uses hydrochloric acid to perform leaching after using coke to perform pre-reduction, and then heats and dehydrates the titanic acid formed to obtain the rich-titanium material; the pre-reduction sulphuric acid leaching process needs to be carried out at a high temperature of about 1200 DEG C., and uses sulphuric acid to perform leaching after using coke to perform pre-reduction, and then heats and dehydrates the titanic acid formed to obtain the rich-titanium material. The titanium tetrachloride will generate corresponding coproduct chlorate while preparing titanium sponge through the magnesium thermic reduction process (Kroll process) or the sodium thermic reduction process (Hunter process), and it is necessary to adopt a melting electrolytic method to separate and recycle the metal and chlorine gas.
Therefore, the conventional art for preparing titanium sponge using titanium tetrachloride as an intermediate material has disadvantages such as complex processes, demanding reaction conditions, high equipment investment requirements, relatively long production cycle, high production cost and non-environment friendly use of chlorine gas.